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| - Wish I'd happened upon joyce k's review, prior to trekking in here last night, cuz the $14 ahi burger jump started an oddly disappointing evening. Very thin composite patty, neither grilled not seared pink inside, but griddled grey all the way through, like a Boca burger. The bun was maybe one grade above a commercial McDonald's bun. Soft and unsubstantial. Since this $14 entree excluded sides, I paid an additional $3 for "root vegetables", apparently Chelseas' code for 'colorless scoop of undercooked fried potato cubes'.
We'd eaten here a year or so prior and had a more than respectable meal with a charming young waiter, so were genuinely surprised at how cobbled together and prideless this dish appeared. Yet even I admired how our strategically inattentive waitress 'forgot' to ever swing by and inquire how little I was enjoying this star crossed (or was it Starkist?) patty. She gets it...this restaurant biz.
A grand total of four beers on tap, starting at $7 a pint? You do realize, Chelseaphiles, the object of your rather pricy affectation abuts the backside of a gas station along the guanoed canal and a bug infested apartment eyesore looms across the street? Yeah, sure. It's "Arcadia". Whatever you say.
As a weird and perhaps inappropriate aside, it took my actively searching wife and I most of the evening to spot a single 'person of color' in this sprawling, adequately lit establishment. It was packed with a forty minute wait, so we're talking hundreds and hundreds of people. I finally saw an older woman off in a corner who the missus confirmed vaguely looked Philipino. Sure, it's just one snapshot on a Thursday night, and I have nothing against PV Caucasians descending from hilltop palazzos for a "comfortable", burger, cookie and confab. White folk gotta eat. Heck, we're hungry, white and reside on a gentle knoll ourselves. But all the same, in a major city in 2011, it's probably fair to at least wonder if such a notable absence of color was entirely coincidental or, like some of the food and service, a product of less tasteful intentions.
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